Manufacture of amines



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE OF AMINES Roland H. Goshorn, Trenton, Mich., assignor to Sharples Chemicals Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Original application April 2, 1942;

Serial No. 437,356. Divided and this application November 24, 1943, Serial No. 511,592

2.,Claims. Cl. 260-583) The present invention pertains to the manufacture of amines. This application is a division of my prior application, Serial No. 437,356, filed April 2, 1942. The manufacture of mono-, diand tri-alkyl amines by amination of alcohols and agent, which may be either an alcohol or an ether, ethers is well known from the work of Sabatler, is passed, together with ammonia or an amine, Smolenski'and others. In the practice of such over a catalyst which consists of a supporting processes, using alcohol as the alkylating agent, material having a catalytic effect, this supportfor example, the alcohol is ordinarily passed in ing material being coated or impregnated with vapor phase, together with ammonia or an amine l0 silica; which acts as a dehydrating promoter or over a dehydrating catalyst, with the result that activator, and this dehydrating activator being in a mixture of mono-, diand tri-alkyl amines is turn coated or combined with a'catalyst promoter formed. It is frequently desirable that the recomprising vanadium oxide. As the supporting action be conducted in such a way as to favor the catalyst, a salt or oxide of aluminum is used. In formation of large proportions of poly-alkyl case a salt is used, the carbonate, silicate, borate amines as compared to mono-alkyl amines, and or phosphateis preferred. a principal feature of the present invention The supporting catalyst is preferably in the consists in the fact that it provides a process granular or pelleted form, as distinguished from by which a product containing a large proinorganic gels of the compounds in question. portion of the poly-alkyl amines may be ob- Oxides of metals have been found to be the best tained. While undesired mono-alkyl amines may catalysts for this purpose, and aluminum oxide be recycled to produce the desired poly-alkyl catalysts in the form of granules, pellets, or lumps amines, a desirable economy is attained if the have given the best results, when used as supcost of such recycling can be minimized or avoidporting catalysts and coated with a silica dehyed by formingan initial reaction mixture in which drating catalyst activator and a hydrogenating the poly-alkyl amines are favored if they are the and dehydrogenating catalyst as discussed hereproduct desired, and this the present invention inafter. Thus, the preferred catalyst of the inaccomplishes. vention consists of granular alumina coated or A large number of catalysts have been proposed impregnated with silica, which is in turn coated for use in the practice of processes by which or impregnated with vanadium oxide. This cataammonia is alkylated to produce alkyl amines by lyst has been found to be superior from the standvapor phase reaction with alcohols o'r ethers. point of conversion and yield, in the manufacture Among such catalysts have been a large number of poly-alkyl amines by reaction of ammonia with of metal oxides and salts. Regardless of the alcohols and ethers, to any catalyst described in catalyst chosen, the practice of the reaction rethe chemical literature. By the terfn vanadiumsults in the formation of substantial quantities oxide, I intend to designate the various oxides of by-products, including nitriles and olefines. A of vanadium and mixtures thereof, since any of further feature of the present invention is that these may be used in practice of the invention. it provides catalysts for the practice of vapor In the preferred practice of the invention, the phase reactions of this type which result in for- 40 ammonia and alkylating agent are passed in mation of smaller quantities of olefins and nitriles vapor phase through a conduit containing the than are obtained by the use of prior art catalysts, catalyst of the invention, these raw materials and which therefore enable us to obtain an imbeing heated to a temperature between 300 and proved yield of the desired amine. 400 C. duringp s thr t e n uit. Another difliculty encountered in the practice Temperatures somewhat lower than 300 C. and of processes of this character consists in the fact somewhat higher than 400 C. may be employed, that only a small proportion of the materials but best results are generally obtained within the passed over the catalyst reacts to form amines. range between 300 and 400 C. An object of the present invention has accord- In the preparation of the catalysts of the iningly been to provide catalysts which give excelvention, the supporting catalyst may be impreglent conversions of the raw materials into amines nated with a salt containing silicon. The maby accelerating the rate of reaction between the terial with which the supporting catalyst has alkylating agent and ammonia, at the same time been impregnated may then be decomposed to that they favor formation of large proportions leave a precipitate of silica as a coating on the of the poly-alkyl amines.

Still further objects of the invention will be evident-from a reading of the following detailed specification.

In the practice of the invention, the alkylating supporting catalyst. The coated supporting catsalt and formation of the vanadium oxide. Thus,

in the manufacture of a catalyst which consists of alumina coated with silica, which is in turn coated with vanadium oxide, the alumina is first suspended in a solution of sodium silicate. Nitric acid is then added to the suspension to precipitate silica on the alumina, and the precipitate is then removed from the solution by filtration or gravity subsidence. The silica on alumina, obtained in this way, is washed with water and then dried under vacuum at elevated temperature. It is then suspended in an ammonium metavanadate solution and thus impregnated with the solution. The water is then evaporated under vacuum, and the coated particles are put in the reaction tube in which they are later to be used in the performance of the amination reaction. They are heated in this tube to a bulk of the water and then completely dried by temperature of approximately 400 C. to decompose the ammonium metavanadate, forming vanadium oxides, water, ammonia and possibly other gaseous products. The volatile decomposition products are driven off, leaving the alumina coated with the vanadium oxide promoting catalyst; At the conclusion of these operations, the

alkylating agent which may, for example, be methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, amyl, etc. alcohol or ether, is passed together with a molecular excess of ammonia, over the resulting composite catalyst, while the conduit containing the catalyst is heated to a temperature s'ufllcient to cause heating of the gases passed through the v sense, complementary to this application in that it favors formation of mono-alkyl amines, will illustrate the extent to which the processes of these two applications promote formation of the respective desired type of amine as contrasted with the less desired type.

Example 100 pounds of Alorco activated alumina, (8-14 mesh) was charged to a 20 gallon ceramic crock which was provided with a gasketed steel cover.

The crock was set in a steam heated water bath-consisting of a half section of a 50 gallon drum having a sparger steam line at the bottom. The alumina was heated for six hours under vacuum in the crock.

The alumina was then cooled, and while it was still under vacuum, a solution containing .23 pounds of 40% sodium silicate in 65 pounds of water was added. The vacuum was released and the mixture stirred thoroughly with a wooden paddle.

A solution containing 7.3 pounds of 70% nitric acid in 15 pounds of water, was" added rapidly heating to 400 C. under atmospheric pressure.

235 grams of the silica coated alumina, produced as described above, was heated under vacuum on a water bath for about three hours and then allowed to cool for an hour. 195 milliliters of water, containing 2.1 grams of ammonium metavanadate in solution were then introduced.

After addition of this solution, the vacuum was released and the mixture was allowed to stand over night. The excess water was then evap-g orated by heating under vacuum over a water bath, with occasional. shaking. The resulting dry material was heated at 400 C. for approximately one and one-half hours while a slow stream of air was passed over it.

The resulting catalyst, consisting of alumina, coated with silica, which was in turn coated with a mixture of vanadium oxides, was placed in a glass tube, and a vaporized mixture of ammonia and.butyl alcohol containing 3.91 moles of ammonia to each mole of butyl alcohol was passed over the catalyst at a space velocity of 1020 and an average temperature of 347 C. Upon analysis of the reaction mixture, it was found that the conversion of the alcohol to mono-butyl amine was 24.9% and the conversion to di-butyl amine was 29.2%, making a total conversion of 54.1%. The yields of mono-butyl amine and di-butyl amine were 29.7 and 34.9% respectively.

Various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, and I do nottherefore wish to be limited except by the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In the manufacture of amines, the process favoring production of a high ratio of poly-alkyl amine to mono-alkyl amine comprising passing a compound of the formula ROR', in which R represents an alkyl radical having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms and R represents hydrogen or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms, together with ammonia through a conduit containing aluminium oxide coated with silica and with vanadium oxide, while heating the mixture to a temperature between the initial reaction temperature and the decomposition temperature of the formed amine.

2. In the manufacture of amines, the process favoring production of a high ratio of poly-alkyl amine to mono-alkyl amine comprising passing a compound of the formula ROR', in which R represents an alkyl radical having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms and R represents hydrogen or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms, together with ammonia through a conduit containing granular alumina coated with silica and with vanadium oxide, while heating the mixture to a temperature between the initial reaction temperature and the decomposition temperature of the formed amine.

. ROLAND H. GOSHORN. 

